Mike
Well-Known Member
Don DeVault is a pretty good friend. When he was still driving an Top Alcohol Dragster, there was an obvious rule about having a positive stop on the steering shaft, to prevent it from becoming a spear in a frontal impact. So, you would feed the shaft in from the nose of the car, until it hit the stop, then bolt the steering box in. The shaft was captive at that point, aye?
Nope.
Don shook the tires off the starting line, and the steering shaft turned into a snake. It was deflecting so much, the coupler unplugged from the steering box, and Don was suddenly a passenger. What saved him was that it happened right off the starting line, rather than after gathering speed, further down track.
I've a pal in Indy, Mike Hazlett, who drove a C/D for a guy over in Ohio. This car was an absolute gem. I mean no money was spared to paint, polish and plate everything on the car. The owner was obsessive about the car being clean. You will not believe this, but I swear it is true. At the end of the day, when it came time to load the car, they would roll the front wheels just up onto the trailer door. They would bring out a 5 gallon jug of water, and pour water over the tires, and wipe them clean, then dry all the water off the wheel and spindle, etc. Then, they would roll the rear tires just up onto the door, and jack the rear end up. They would pour water over the rear tires, rotating them as they went, to wash all the dust, dirt, and debris off. Then that end of the car would get dried off. When they packed the chute on that car, they laid it down on towels, to fold it. Couldn't have any dust or dirt getting on the chute, now could they?
I talked to a guy, from over in Ohio, who had previously driven the car, and casually mentioned all the cleaning was more than a little obsessive. He told me they would spend 6 - 8 hours a week, after every race, pulling off body panels, polishing the insides, wiping down frame rails, etc.
You know, we tried to keep our stuff clean, but it was a race car, for Pete's sake!
Anyway, the owner had a passion for being clean, but this guy was clueless when it came to working inside the can. Mike would stage the car, and when he would switch feet, the tires would go square, and rattle all the way through low gear. He would punch the button for second, and you would think the tires were going to come right off the wheels, they would wad up so badly. Mike said when the car would leave, everything would turn gray, that he could not see any color in anything, and as the car would keep moving, his vision would start tunneling down, and the gray would start turning black. I kid you not, just watching that car leave the starting line would make you hurt.
Mike started having some severe pains in his shoulder and he finally saw a doctor about it. It was being caused from his shoulder being banged into the top rail, during all the tire shake. He was talking to the doctor about how violent the shake was, and explained what would happen to his vision. The doctor explained that he was right on the edge of going unconscious. And that was the end of Mike's driving a dragster.
With the V-6 car, we had to walk a very fine line with the clutch. That car, in my opinion, was all about the clutch. You wanted to stick the tires at the starting line, but in addition to being hard on the discs, we didn't have the huge amounts of torque the V-8 guys had, so we would always try for some controlled wheel speed at the line. We needed just enough tire spin to get the car up onto the tire. If I could see the car just slipping the tire at the starting line, then I knew we were in the right church, so I would start watching the tops of the tires. If they would just ripple a tiny bit, as the car went into 3rd gear, I knew the car was on a pass. But it was a very delicate situation, because if the car really rattled the tires in third, then we were toast. And I knew Brian would be looking for aspirin, when we got back to the trailer. And the difference between re-setting the National Record and rattling the tires out of the groove could be a tiny, tiny amount of counterweight, on just a single finger.
The Fuel guys talk about counterweight changes in huge numbers, but we had to finesse everything. I remember Dale Creasy once telling me the track at Columbus had changed eighty grams, in the heat of the day. I nearly fell down, because we didn't have eighty grams of counterweight in the entire trailer! I once saw a multi-time Pro Stock National Champion hang a zip tie on a clutch finger, because he needed to make that small a change. When you are within tenths of a gram from shaking the tires, you know your combination is about as close as it can get.
Tire shake is some nasty stuff, and when I see the big cars rattling the tires, I just cringe.
George, I know most people would argue with me until the second coming, but I really think it is time to rein the cars and the teams at the NHRA big shows. Take the Pro Stock cars back to a steel roof and steel quarters. Let's get those things looking like real cars again. As for the fuel stuff, well, limit the blowers, use a single mag and a single pump. And start weaning those cars off the timed clutch applications. Back in the day, if a car started to slip the tires, a driver might be good enough to catch it and still win a round. Today, if the driver steps off and back on, as the timers are applying more clutch, it's all over. Open the nitro percentages back up, and put the damn traps back at 1320 feet, instead of this 1,000 foot stuff. Sure, the cars would slow way down, but costs would drop back to a point where a mega-billionaire could afford to own a car again, the fuel cars would be ripping and snorting on the heavier nitro loads and races would go back to being won by a driver's skills.
I look at the current situation with Alan Johnson and Shawn Langdon with mixed emotions. I have huge respect for Alan Johnson and his abilities, but look what happens when a team like that loses their gold-plated teat to feed on. No, I do not want to see that team parked, but maybe if the NHRA rules were not a runaway train, then AJ could find a marketing partner to work with him. When I look at the Gray Racing Pro Stock team, and Terry Chandler's financing of the Tommy Johnson AA/FC, I see three teams that can afford to be out there. But how many BILLIONS of dollars did Johnny Gray and Terry Chandler net from the sale of the family oil business? It was a ballsy move for Richard Freeman to sit out the Western Swing, last year, particularly when Enders-Stevens was winning races right and left. But props to Freeman for realizing that he could not hope to win enough to make the Western Swing a profitable venture.
Errr, am I rambling?
Apologies for derailing your thread, @RPM , but it is just so plain that NHRA needs to start fixing their house, before it all tumbles down atop them.
Nope.
Don shook the tires off the starting line, and the steering shaft turned into a snake. It was deflecting so much, the coupler unplugged from the steering box, and Don was suddenly a passenger. What saved him was that it happened right off the starting line, rather than after gathering speed, further down track.
I've a pal in Indy, Mike Hazlett, who drove a C/D for a guy over in Ohio. This car was an absolute gem. I mean no money was spared to paint, polish and plate everything on the car. The owner was obsessive about the car being clean. You will not believe this, but I swear it is true. At the end of the day, when it came time to load the car, they would roll the front wheels just up onto the trailer door. They would bring out a 5 gallon jug of water, and pour water over the tires, and wipe them clean, then dry all the water off the wheel and spindle, etc. Then, they would roll the rear tires just up onto the door, and jack the rear end up. They would pour water over the rear tires, rotating them as they went, to wash all the dust, dirt, and debris off. Then that end of the car would get dried off. When they packed the chute on that car, they laid it down on towels, to fold it. Couldn't have any dust or dirt getting on the chute, now could they?
I talked to a guy, from over in Ohio, who had previously driven the car, and casually mentioned all the cleaning was more than a little obsessive. He told me they would spend 6 - 8 hours a week, after every race, pulling off body panels, polishing the insides, wiping down frame rails, etc.
You know, we tried to keep our stuff clean, but it was a race car, for Pete's sake!Anyway, the owner had a passion for being clean, but this guy was clueless when it came to working inside the can. Mike would stage the car, and when he would switch feet, the tires would go square, and rattle all the way through low gear. He would punch the button for second, and you would think the tires were going to come right off the wheels, they would wad up so badly. Mike said when the car would leave, everything would turn gray, that he could not see any color in anything, and as the car would keep moving, his vision would start tunneling down, and the gray would start turning black. I kid you not, just watching that car leave the starting line would make you hurt.
Mike started having some severe pains in his shoulder and he finally saw a doctor about it. It was being caused from his shoulder being banged into the top rail, during all the tire shake. He was talking to the doctor about how violent the shake was, and explained what would happen to his vision. The doctor explained that he was right on the edge of going unconscious. And that was the end of Mike's driving a dragster.
With the V-6 car, we had to walk a very fine line with the clutch. That car, in my opinion, was all about the clutch. You wanted to stick the tires at the starting line, but in addition to being hard on the discs, we didn't have the huge amounts of torque the V-8 guys had, so we would always try for some controlled wheel speed at the line. We needed just enough tire spin to get the car up onto the tire. If I could see the car just slipping the tire at the starting line, then I knew we were in the right church, so I would start watching the tops of the tires. If they would just ripple a tiny bit, as the car went into 3rd gear, I knew the car was on a pass. But it was a very delicate situation, because if the car really rattled the tires in third, then we were toast. And I knew Brian would be looking for aspirin, when we got back to the trailer. And the difference between re-setting the National Record and rattling the tires out of the groove could be a tiny, tiny amount of counterweight, on just a single finger.
The Fuel guys talk about counterweight changes in huge numbers, but we had to finesse everything. I remember Dale Creasy once telling me the track at Columbus had changed
eighty grams, in the heat of the day. I nearly fell down, because we didn't have eighty grams of counterweight in the entire trailer! I once saw a multi-time Pro Stock National Champion hang a zip tie on a clutch finger, because he needed to make that small a change. When you are within tenths of a gram from shaking the tires, you know your combination is about as close as it can get.Tire shake is some nasty stuff, and when I see the big cars rattling the tires, I just cringe.
George, I know most people would argue with me until the second coming, but I really think it is time to rein the cars and the teams at the NHRA big shows. Take the Pro Stock cars back to a steel roof and steel quarters. Let's get those things looking like real cars again. As for the fuel stuff, well, limit the blowers, use a single mag and a single pump. And start weaning those cars off the timed clutch applications. Back in the day, if a car started to slip the tires, a driver might be good enough to catch it and still win a round. Today, if the driver steps off and back on, as the timers are applying more clutch, it's all over. Open the nitro percentages back up, and put the damn traps back at 1320 feet, instead of this 1,000 foot stuff. Sure, the cars would slow way down, but costs would drop back to a point where a mega-billionaire could afford to own a car again
, the fuel cars would be ripping and snorting on the heavier nitro loads and races would go back to being won by a driver's skills.I look at the current situation with Alan Johnson and Shawn Langdon with mixed emotions. I have huge respect for Alan Johnson and his abilities, but look what happens when a team like that loses their gold-plated teat to feed on. No, I do not want to see that team parked, but maybe if the NHRA rules were not a runaway train, then AJ could find a marketing partner to work with him. When I look at the Gray Racing Pro Stock team, and Terry Chandler's financing of the Tommy Johnson AA/FC, I see three teams that can afford to be out there. But how many BILLIONS of dollars did Johnny Gray and Terry Chandler net from the sale of the family oil business? It was a ballsy move for Richard Freeman to sit out the Western Swing, last year, particularly when Enders-Stevens was winning races right and left. But props to Freeman for realizing that he could not hope to win enough to make the Western Swing a profitable venture.
Errr, am I rambling?
Apologies for derailing your thread, @RPM , but it is just so plain that NHRA needs to start fixing their house, before it all tumbles down atop them.
